Bengaluru: Country’s first bio-diesel buses were introduced by the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) on December 24. The 25 new buses will be deployed on the Bengaluru-Kundapur, Bengaluru-Bidar, Bengaluru-Tirupati and Bengaluru-Chennai routes, with no changes in the prices.
Ramalinga Reddy, State Minister of transport flagged off the newly inducted luxury multi-axle Scania buses at the KSRTC depot. He said that the bio-diesel buses were cheaper and eco-friendly when compared to the diesel run buses.
According to Rajender Kumar Kataria, Managing Director, KSRTC, bus manufacturer Scania was given the contract to supply 25 diesel buses. However after the trials, KSRTC decided to procure retrofitted bio-diesel buses that can be run on diesel or a mix of bio-diesel and diesel, without any engine modifications instead of the diesel buses. The bio-diesel needed for the buses will be supplied by a Telangana based company, he said.
“All high-end buses to be obtained in the future will be retrofitted with bio-diesel kits. The KSRTC will run the existing fleet of ordinary diesel buses on a blend of 20 per cent biodiesel and 80 per cent diesel, without any engine modification, to make them eco-friendly. The emission levels of bio-diesel buses were 60 to 70 per cent lesser than diesel buses, with mileage and engine efficiency being unaffected,” Kataria added.
